BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- China's four major law
enforcement agencies called for more cautiously handling death penalty cases by
jointly issuing a document on Sunday.

The document, jointly issued by the Supreme People's
Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ministry of Public Security and Ministry
of Justice, underlined that the Supreme People's Court is authorized to exercise
the final approval for death penalty cases.

It also asked law enforcement officials to strictly
obey laws in identifying facts, collecting evidence, dealing with procedures and
adopting punishments.

Also, some basic principles in handling death penalty
cases has been drown by the document which asked to punish criminals as well as
protect their human rights.

It requested not to parade suspects or criminals to
the public for the purpose of humiliating them.

The document especially ordered to prevent law
enforcement officials from inquisiting by torture, extorting confession, and
banning any form of illegally collecting evidence.

Judges at different levels should pay more attention
to the validity of evidence in handling death penalty cases, the document said.

It stressed that all law enforcement organs should
cooperate with each other in dealing with such cases to ensure that every death
sentence is made in a fair way.